Ghana government commits $1b to TVET sector – Director
Government has committed close to $1 billion to revamp the Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector to make it attractive to the public and industry to ensure its meaningful contribution to the country’s development.
“Looking at what has been done in the past four years just for TVET, if government is to go on like this for the next 10 years, we can see that TVET would be the leader in the educational system…,” Dr Fred Kyei Asamoah, the Director General, Commission for TVET, said on Wednesday.
At a media engagement by the Commission and the Ghana Jobs and Skills Project in Accra, he said before the end of April, this year, government would cut the sod for the construction of 32 modern training centres across the country.
The programme is expected to be held every quarterly to brief the media on various developments in relation to the sector.
Dr Asamoah said the projects were expected to be completed within 24 months to increase access to TVET.
He said the sites for the projects had already been identified while a building permit and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approvals had been sought.
“Government has gone through every step that is required to make sure the resources are available so that when the work begins there will be no delays,” he added.
Dr Asamoah said the Ministry for Education was ready to support the transformation of the sector for sustainable development and reduce the unemployment rate.
Government, through Act 1023, had brought in a committee to work on establishing the Ghana Skills Development Fund into which government and industry would contribute.
He said industry players would have the biggest say on the fund since they constitute more than half of the members.
He said Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia would soon inaugurate the Jobs and Skills matching project to ensure that not less than 250,000 jobs are created in the skills sector.
He called on local industry players to support government in terms of funding for the sector, saying; “Government alone cannot do everything”.
He hinted that a curriculum was being developed for 100 trade areas to make sure that the sector was given the maximum support.
Source: GNA